Dogville (2003)

Director:

Lars von Trier

Writer:

Lars von Trier (written by)

Release Date:

21 May 2003 (Belgium)

Genre:

Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

A quiet little town not far from here.

Plot:

A woman on the run from the mob is reluctantly accepted in a small Colorado town. In exchange, she agrees to work for them. As a search visits town, she finds out that their support has a price. Yet her dangerous secret is never far away...

Plot Keywords:

Community | Gangster | Rocky Mountains | Mob | 1930s

Awards:

13 wins & 19 nominations

Cast

Nicole Kidman	...	Grace Margaret Mulligan
Harriet Andersson	...	Gloria
Lauren Bacall	...	Ma Ginger
Jean-Marc Barr	...	The Man with the Big Hat
Paul Bettany	...	Tom Edison
Blair Brown	...	Mrs. Henson
James Caan	...	The Big Man
Patricia Clarkson	...	Vera
Jeremy Davies	...	Bill Henson
Ben Gazzara	...	Jack McKay
Philip Baker Hall	...	Tom Edison Sr.
Thom Hoffman	...	Gangster
Siobhan Fallon	...	Martha (as Siobhan Fallon Hogan)
John Hurt	...	Narrator (voice)
Zeljko Ivanek	...	Ben

Also Known As:

Dogville (France) (Germany)
The Film 'Dogville' as Told in Nine Chapters and a Prologue (USA) (long title)
U - Der Film 'Dogville' erzählt in neun Kapiteln und einem Prolog. (Germany) (long title)

MPAA:

Rated R for violence and sexual content.

Runtime:

178 min | Australia:138 min | Italy:135 min

Country:

Denmark | Sweden | Norway | Finland | UK | France | Germany | Netherlands

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Norway:11 | Iceland:14 (theatrical rating) | Iceland:16 (video rating) | Italy:T (re-rating) (2004) | Singapore:PG (video rating) (cut) | Malaysia:U (DVD) | Brazil:16 | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14A (Ontario) | Canada:18A (Alberta/British Columbia) | Denmark:11 | Finland:K-15 | France:-12 | Germany:12 | Hong Kong:IIB | Ireland:15 | Italy:VM14 | Japan:R-15 | Netherlands:12 | New Zealand:R13 | Portugal:M/16 | Singapore:R(A) | South Korea:18 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Film i Väst, Nohab Industrial Estate, Trollhättan, Västra Götalands län, Sweden

Company:

Zentropa Entertainments

Trivia:

Nicole Kidman is said to have communicated very little with the rest of the team, apart from practical issues. However, she did invite the team for champagne and caviar and flew in Mexican chefs to cook for everyone.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: At the beginning of the movie, Tom and Bill are going to play "checkers". The board that's used however isn't a checkers board (8x8 squares) but a draughts board (10x10). As far as I'm aware, this version of the game wasn't played in the USA in the 1930's (it was played in Europe, however).

Quotes:

[first lines]
Narrator: This is the sad tale of the township of Dogville. Dogville was in the Rocky Mountains in the US of A, up here where the road came to its definitive end, near the entrance to the old abandoned silver mine. The residents of Dogville were good honest folks...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Carreiras (2005)

Soundtrack:

Young Americans

Exploration of the darkness of the human soul

If one is looking for a starter to this heart-tearing masterpiece, I suggest My Dinner With Andre from 1981. Another movie from which you get a feeling of having read a good book. Very few films render that feeling, but these two do.

Where to start describing the bouquet of feelings this masterpiece has caused in me? A good point is admiration for Nicole Kidman's mix of wit, grace, innocence scented with beauty that, as the film evolves, turns into a thick film, a pellicle of suffering and enduring, glued together with forgiveness. I do not wish to believe that those qualities can be displayed credibly without the actress actually possessing them ( :) ? ) From the point Chuck takes advantage of Grace the first time, I couldn't stop occasional shivers the just-observed caused me, so much it touched. The conclusion can be drawn after watching the film: one cannot know his/her true nature unless given a real ungoverned power over another living being. They all seem nice in the beginning. The power and a sense of opportunity of free use only amplify themselves in Dogvillians. The evil seed in Chuck spreads among all the dogs, or were they all evil a priori?

Artificial settings? One stage? Please! They are forgotten in 10 minutes. As all true works of art, this thing glows from the inside, it doesn't need a vivid facade. Long movie? I would have liked to see maybe an even longer one, but it would have probably put me into even sadder mood watching the ugliness killing the grace.

Indeed, Tom, a great illustration of the fact that humans haven't changed from the medieval or perhaps even more primitive times - still dismissing the truth about themselves as lies, the truth that only very few of them are unselfish, decent in terms of morale and even 1 cm away from the animal desires for flesh.

Grace concludes that she wouldn't have been much better had she been born in Dogville. I disagree - one can be no matter how poor but still cultured, at list on a microlevel of one person, on a macroscale culture of course doesn't develop without having material funds at its foundation. Then a human raises his head from a plug and looks up in the sky, and connects with Love, and then the decency is born in him/her as a little fire that can't be put out by any amount of torture inflicted upon her/him. The decency can also be transferred from a parent to a child.

Dogville got what it deserved, in the end, justice comes in and flushes the inner hollowness created by co-suffering with Grace, heals the pain.

Thank you, Lars, and thank you, Nicole, this work is engraved into my mind for a lifetime.